As usual, I enjoyed this lastest instalment in the "Thoroughly Southern Mystery" series. The characters are strong, the plot multi-faceted with good clues woven throughout, the narrative draws a variety of emotion, including surprising sadness in places, and the writing style is readable with decent attention to detail.
However, I wanted to wring Joe Riddley's neck in this story. His intentions may have been for the best, so he says, but his solution was...grrrr. (No spoilers!)
This ending of the book appears to show a turning point in the series...or is this the end. I hope not.
Georgia magistrate MacLaren Yarbrough has never believed her husband's threat to shackle her to her desk to keep her from "meddling in murder." But when Starr Knight, the taxidermist's daughter, is found dead, that's just what Joe Riddley does, despite Mac's protest that she has no intention of getting involved.
She just has one question: why did the flamboyant young mother dress so sedately on the day she died? Then a second young woman is murdered, also dressed characteristically. Now Mac's got to askâ"whose closet will be raided next?
(A Thoroughly Southern Mystery #10)
This is another interesting mystery involving MacLaren Yarbrough, magistrate in a small southern town and partner with her husband in the family feed, seed, and nursery business. The author says on her website that this will probably be the last in this series, at least for a while.